The proposed conference on "Translational Control" will convene scientists studying various aspects of the molecular mechanisms and regulation of messenger RNA translation and stability. Major advances have been made recently on many aspects of these topics, and the proposed conference will be a timely event for discussing the latest unpublished results and exchanging ideas, thereby fostering new developments in this rapidly moving field. The proposed 2002 conference will be held on September 10-15th and is the seventh meeting of a conference that is held every other year at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The most recent meeting was held in September, 2000 and attracted 460 scientists from all over the world, who are actively investigating various aspects of translation and mRNA decay using genetic, biochemical, molecular, and cell biological approaches. As in the previous meetings, a major focus will be on the structures of the ribosome and soluble translation factors, and the mechanisms of initiation, elongation and termination steps of protein synthesis. Studies on the conventional scanning pathway and noncanonical initiation events involving internal ribosome entry sites both will be featured, along with analyses of cis- and trans- acting factors that regulate these processes in response to environmental or developmental cues, or during the course of viral infections. Specialized receding events during the elongation process also will be described. The mechanisms of mRNA decay and the regulatory sequences and factors that govern these pathways will constitute another major focus of discussion. The meeting format will consist of eight plenary sessions and three poster sessions. Speakers in the plenary sessions will be selected on the basis of the submitted abstracts, which will encourage active participation by junior scientists. The main topics covered will include: translation mechanism, initiation factors and reactions, internal initiation and ribosome shunting, regulation of translation factor activity, regulatory sequences in mRNA, translational control by viruses, mechanisms of mRNA turnover, and regulation of translation and mRNA stability in development. Subsequent conferences held biennially will follow a similar format and will include topics that are highly relevant at the time of the meeting.